Saturday, September 14, 2013

At one time Braddock was a city of over 20,000 people, but the collapse of the steel industry and infusion of crack cocaine reduced it to a little over 2,000 inhabitants. However, this is not a place that has given up. A strong mayor and the determination of the people are starting to pay off, though there is a very long road ahead.

The Braddock Project - Part 1 is the beginning of a project where I will visit the city twice a year over the next decade to document the resurgence. This is a baseline that will tell us where it has been. Indeed, a number of these places no longer exist, as the city works its way back.

These images are scans of prints created through the Bromoil process, a labor intensive, time consuming procedure where the silver is removed from a traditionally created darkroom print and replaced with lithographic ink by striking its surface with a stiff, ink charged brush. It adds an ethereal atmosphere to the scene, allowing the viewer to enter and understand the image on their own.

a) The Birdbath in My Garden:
Photographed with a medium format 4x5, wide angle pinhole camera.
I took it using b&w film. I've printed it using a hybrid process, a Pictorico OHP
transparency generated from an Epson 2200 internegative, and then a Van Dyke.
The negative has also been scanned, and digitally printed using fine art paper.
It was captured several years ago while my wife and I lived in Southern California.
No need to explain anything about it further.

b) Cat and Her Shadow, Istanbul, Turkey 2007:
Captured with a Nikon D2X while on a trip to Istanbul in 2007 using a good
14 mm Nikkor 2.8 lens. The lens accentuated the the s-curve of the feral cat and her discovered shadow
while she was cradled in the the arc of the cobblestones. (I assume it was a "she," but I have
no way of knowing.)

It was shot in RAW color and brought to b&w through manipulation of the channels.
I then digitally sepia toned it. As usual for me, it would be printed on flat, natural rag.

I sometimes photograph animals when they reveal a certain intelligence, a certain awareness in the moment that I'm fortunate enough to capture. Animals, however, are not a subject that I gravitate to often, just when I see what I just described. I'm very interested in saying things simply with my photos, but I hope what I aim to say with an image isn't that simple.
www.petergorwin.com

Saturday, September 7, 2013

The lone tree by the lake is a subject I've returned to in different seasons and times of day. This was taken at sunrise. The rood in the field with sunlight was pure serendipity. I had also photographed the cross before, but without much drama or interest. As I passed this field one morning, though, the fog, the sun, and the cross composed themselves for me, and I merely had to press the shutter! For more of my work, you may visit www.johnvossphotography.blogspot.com.

It's not a website with selected images, but rather an ongoing presentation of images more or less when I make them.

Country Churches, is autobiographical project and exploring rural churches was ingrained in me from growing up the son of a country preacher. Never seeing eye-to-eye with my father’s orthodoxy, I did discover in the quiet simplicity of these churches a truer meaning of faith.

Rambling through the back roads of the rural south brought up feelings I had not expected. There is something special about these church buildings—they have a sense of community and comfort in their architectures that grounds the soul in the common sense that went into their construction.

I try to capture the universal “Us” in everyday situations, connecting the viewer to our shared experiences. I believe our environment shapes us as much as we shape our surroundings and I want my images to celebrate the common characteristics of places and people and how they all fit together.”

Almost every morning and evening I take our dogs out for their walks. It had been raining in the night and I was looking for something to photograph that would show the after effects of the rain. I was struck by this leaf and the way the water droplets were arranged large and small. I converted the color raw image to black and white.

1) Have patience, LinkedIn only allows me to email this group once a week to make a new announcement to all the membership. I will try to post 2-3 photographers a week, over a weekend in the order they come to me. Yours may be # 75…. don't get upset if it takes a while to see your work.

2) This isn't a contest. We all come from different walks in photography sharing the same interest and love.

CAUTION :NUDES…..I am no prude but the blog is open for the public to view and it does have a certain criteria. We can argue all about the morals, religion, justice, what the Pope and aunt Hida thinks in the Group but the blog is different and not the right place for me to challenge rules. Let' s not start a march on the establishment. There are fine art nudes,studies and then naked pictures. You can make your artist statement or info with a link to where they are ON YOUR SITE… fair enough for this subject only.

AWARNESS:

Any image on any site can be copied, but at a low res how far can you go with it? If you're that concerned, keep them home. Neither I nor Blogspot will be held liable for some nerd who wants to make a screen saver, or show it in his book report . If you have a unique way of protection let us all know, please.

COMMENTS:Know and accept that comments good and bad can be made by others, maybe even by outside persons who read this blog. This blog is public, the Group is not.Let's discuss the work but not go for a dissertation. Try to keep comments brief and to the point. A few words or sentences can do it best. You can add more thought in another comment.

Please spare us all from a simple "Like" as a comment. That serves nothing. Mom "likes " what I do… so what…Tell us why you like it or not, how you see it, how you relate to it, how you feel about it . Point out something that might open our eyes and bring an image to another level might not be standing on. Make good constructive comments.

Making a good comment is not as easy as you think , be understanding of those who try, realize photographers are better visuals than wordsmiths. We're interested in what you say, just be considerate on how you say it.

If you don't expect comments, don't send material. Refer to the person in your comment and his image.There may be more than one photographer in a post. Questions may be asked about the work or technique, however some techniques may not necessarily be divulged, the photographer's call . Stay on topic. Talk about their work not yours. Any critique should be solely on the work not the person.

Don't defend your work by answering a comment you don't agree with… "..I couldn't stand in a better place…it was raining that day…I didn't have enough time, my wife wanting to go shopping.." Better to say, " I chose to make it dark for a more somber feeling" not "Push the brightness button on your monitor dummy.."

Being passionate is fine but keep it civil and professional . There's a difference between " Joe I think your shadows are murky, punch up the black " and Joe that looks like crap, my grandmother shoots better than that " Remember your comment is solely your opinion even if it's based on all the diplomas, ribbons and awards you received. Critics were wrong about VanGogh and so were the buyers.

Do not send any commercial ventures, offers, sales, recruitment, subscriptions etc. of any kind, no take my course, join my expedition or Buy My Prints crap. You can post that in the group under Promotions.

One last thing… let's not argue, let's share, learn, enjoy each other's company and move forward.